Mac OS X: Our favorite programming text editor for Mac costs $40, so we're always excited when a good and free option comes along. Tincta is just that, offering several great developer-friendly features like code syntax highlighting, line numbering, autocomplete brackets, and much more.

There is no shortage of options for text editors geared towards developers on the Mac, but TextMate …
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What Does Tincta Do?

Tincta handles a lot of what you'd expect from a programming text editor. It has your standard find and replace, spell checking, and auto-indentation features, plus everything previously mentioned. It's fast, lightweight, 64-bit, and makes it easy to preview your code in the browser. Basically, it can handle the majority of your programming needs and you can get extra features (like split-pane view and a snippet manager) for $13. The question worth asking is why you should bother with it when there are other established options available.

How Does Tincta Compare to Other Free Programming Text Editors?

If you own something like TextMate (our favorite) or Sublime Text 2 there's really no reason to look at a free option because you've already paid for something really great. When you're looking at other free options on the Mac, however, Tincta offers some distinct advantages. TextWrangler has been a long-time favorite but it also feels (and is) a little old. We really like Fraise (the successor to Smultron, a popular OS X programming text editor) but Fraise hasn't seen an update since March, 2010. Tincta actually feels very similar to Fraise/Smultron, but offers more features. Finally, there is Kod which has always been my favorite of the free options. That said, Kod is still a ways off from version 1.0 and offers a varied feature set. While it's definitely the best looking of the bunch, Tincta may suite you better. It's definitely worth looking at both if you're in the market for a new and free programming text editor.